Characterization of a Murine Cytomegalovirus Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Homolog: Comparison to MHC Molecules and to the Human Cytomegalovirus MHC Homolog

Abstract

Both human and murine cytomegaloviruses (HCMV and MCMV) down-regulate expression of conventional class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules at the surfaces of infected cells. This allows the infected cells to evade recognition by cytotoxic T cells but leaves them susceptible to natural killer cells, which lyse cells that lack class I molecules. Both HCMV and MCMV encode class I MHC heavy-chain homologs that may function in immune response evasion. We previously showed that a soluble form of the HCMV class I homolog (U L 18) expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells binds the class I MHC light-chain β2-microglobulin and a mixture of endogenous peptides (M. L. Fahnestock, J. L. Johnson, R. M. R. Feldman, J. M. Neveu, W. S. Lane, and P. J. Bjorkman, Immunity 3:583–590, 1995). Consistent with this observation, sequence comparisons suggest that U L 18 contains the well-characterized groove that serves as the binding site in MHC molecules for peptides derived from endogenous and foreign proteins. By contrast, the MCMV homolog (m144) contains a substantial deletion within the counterpart of its α2 domain and might not be expected to contain a groove capable of binding peptides. We have now expressed a soluble version of m144 and verified that it forms a heavy chain–β2-microglobulin complex. By contrast to U L 18 and classical class I MHC molecules, m144 does not associate with endogenous peptides yet is thermally stable. These results suggest that U L 18 and m144 differ structurally and might therefore serve different functions for their respective viruses.